


The Good Part of You

by Dawn_Blossom



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Future Past Grima, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, M/M, Polyamory, Post-Sacrifice Ending Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25929412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawn_Blossom/pseuds/Dawn_Blossom
Summary: ”I swear upon my life that I will defeat you once and for all,” says little Lucina, though she has grown into the splitting image of her future self. Her eyes blaze with a determination that will never die, even though she is the sole survivor out of all her friends and family. “And then I will find a way to send you to whatever world you sent my father... Perhaps he can find a way to set the good part of you free…”. . .What has Lucina done?
Relationships: Chrom/Gimurei | Grima, Chrom/Gimurei | Grima/My Unit | Reflet | Robin, Chrom/My Unit | Reflet | Robin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	The Good Part of You

**Author's Note:**

> I have wanted to do something with this concept of Lucina sending Future Past Grima to another world for AGES because this is a real thing she says she's going to do in the bad ending of Future Past 3. And we're just??? Out here NOT writing a million fics about it??? 
> 
> Anyway, I feel like Chrom is weak for every Robin in existence and all the Robins are like "oh that's me but slightly to the left" about each other so... Grima/Chrom/Robin is real and happening here.

Grima doesn’t know where he is, but it’s warm. 

That doesn’t seem quite right… The last thing he remembers is Lucina driving the Awakened Falchion into him. It was agony, but it was also sweet relief. He was supposed to be sealed away, unable to harm the world any more than he already had. Could a thousand years truly have passed so quickly? Surely not, but if he is sealed away, why can he feel a breeze against his skin? 

His eyes fly open, and things do not become any less confusing. There is a man standing over him, his blue hair and blue eyes so impossibly familiar to him. Grima murdered Chrom long ago… And yet it is undoubtedly Chrom here in front of him.

Chrom’s lips are moving. It takes a moment for the sound to catch up to Grima’s mind.

“... Robin? Hey, Robin?”

It’s been so long since he’s heard that name. Everyone who knew it was slaughtered by his own hand… Or was it the hand of his future self? It doesn’t matter; the moment he gave into his future self’s power, he doomed all his companions, contemporary and future alike. It was as much his fault as it was his future self’s. After all, the only difference between them is that he tried unsuccessfully to fight against his own nature, while his future self embraced it. All of the fell dragon’s actions are his own. 

But it’s over now, isn’t it? The world is safe, thanks to the younger Lucina, the girl who grew up to succeed where the princess who travelled through time failed. And though Grima does not know where he is, Chrom is here, and so whether he is dead or dreaming, he must be safe.

“I missed you so much…” he whispers, taking the hand Chrom offers him. The admission sends a shock wave of pain through his chest. Technically, he has two sets of memories of Chrom’s death. The first, courtesy of merging with his future self, was at his own hand (or, more accurately, Validar’s mind controlling his hand… but the distinction does not ease the pain). The second he has no vision of, for his future self was clouding out his sight, but he clearly remembers the screams of each and every Shepherd. Chrom’s dying words were asking for him to come back, but it was far too late for that. His future self pretended that he was glad to see Chrom die and die again, but it simply wasn’t the truth… Not that it mattered. Their minds, bodies, and souls were merged, but somehow they retained distinct consciousnesses. There may have been two souls’ worth of mistakes in them, but his future self left all the regretting to him.

“Chrom, wha—” Another familiar voice speaks, but it is familiar in a bone-chilling way. Another version of himself, golden-eyed and still innocent, dumbfoundedly stares at Grima’s hand in Chrom’s.

Immediately, Grima pulls away as though he’s been burned.

“Get away from me!” he shouts, although in fact he has not been the one injured. It’s Chrom he’s worried about, Chrom and this other Robin, because he could so easily kill them again. It is not a dream, Grima realizes now, but another world.

. . . 

_”I swear upon my life that I will defeat you once and for all,” says little Lucina, though she has grown into the splitting image of her future self. Her eyes blaze with a determination that will never die, even though she is the sole survivor out of all her friends and family. “And then I will find a way to send you to whatever world you sent my father... Perhaps he can find a way to set the good part of you free…”_

. . .

What has Lucina done? Yes, _he_ has the power to warp space and time, but _she_ should not. Did she ask Tiki for help? Between Tiki’s own power and what she inherited from her mother, perhaps that world’s new Naga could indeed manage something like this…

But why? Why bother? He was safely sealed away, along with the body of the dragon he controlled.

He gasps as he realizes that he can no longer feel it. The dragon is gone. And he has noticed for some time that his thoughts are his alone. Perhaps… Perhaps he really is...

Not free. Never free. The weight of his ancient soul will always be too heavy for this body. The sins he has committed will forever stain his hands. But at least… Perhaps no one has to die anymore.

“It’s okay,” Chrom says calmly. “I may not be the Chrom you’re used to, but I will still do everything in my power to help you.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Robin asks.

Grima takes a good look at his counterpart and feels his blood boil.

“You get away from him, too!” he demands. Desperately, he looks at Chrom. “He’s going to kill you!”

This Chrom can still be saved. Grima doesn’t know how, but there has to be some way to keep him safe.

“That’s what I used to be afraid of,” Robin says. “But no… The fell dragon is gone now. Look…”

He extends his hand. There is no telltale glow of the Brand of the Defile.

Still, Grima scoffs.

“You think that means anything?” he asks. “Maybe you took out that awful reconstruction the Grimleal made. But you’re still right here. And now I’m here. That’s two fell dragons. Do you think you aren’t evil just because you have a human body?”

Robin grimaces. Chrom quickly steps between the two, raising his hands placatingly.

“Look, no one here is evil,” he says. He tries to give a reassuring smile to Grima, not that Grima feels reassured. “Robin, I think—”

“Don’t call me that,” Grima snaps. “My name is Grima! I’ve always… been Grima…”

It isn’t as though he likes his name. It isn’t as though he likes being the fell dragon. But he cannot change who he is. Trying to run away only got more people killed.

“I’m not supposed to be here,” he says. “We’re not supposed to be here,” he says, staring at Robin.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Chrom snaps.”You ARE here. Both of you. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s exactly where you should be.”

“Chrom…” Robin murmurs, his gaze softening as it shifts to Chrom.

“Chrom…” Grima murmurs, his heart aching. “Okay, okay. It’s one thing if it’s him. Maybe things really are different here. But I… I still don’t belong here. There shouldn’t be two of us. Anyone can see that’s wrong.”

“Do you know how to go back to where you came from?” Chrom asks.

“I…”

The thing is, Grima does. It would be simple if he was still tethered to the dragon, if he could access the full extent of his power. But even without it, it wouldn’t be too hard to find a gate to the outrealms and cross back on borrowed energy. 

What is there for him to back to, though? A world recovering from the wounds he himself inflicted? Lucina, whom he could never look in the eye?

What is he supposed to do?

“If you don’t know how,” Chrom says, “then you should come back home with us. There’s room for you in Ylisstol. There will always be room for you.”

Grima remains silent in disbelief. There is no way that Chrom doesn’t know about the outrealms, which means he should know perfectly well how to get Grima back to his world. He could throw Grima into the gate himself and call it a day. Instead, he is offering his home to the fell dragon.

Chrom comes closer, placing a hand on Grima’s shoulder. This time, Grima does not jerk away. He cannot resist his touch yet again.This is the love of his life.

“This would be so much easier if you drove me away,” Grima mutters.

“And in what world would that ever happen?” Robin asks. “Is it not our constant frustration that he keeps looking for people to pick up off the ground? He wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t help you.”

“Sorry, but there’s no way I could be okay with you leaving,” Chrom says with far too warm a smile. “The first thing you thought to do here was try to save me. I trust you… no matter what name you call yourself.”

“Chrom…” Grima may as well be getting stabbed in the heart. He cannot stop himself from wrapping his arms around Chrom’s body. “Don’t you get it? I don’t want you to trust me. I don’t want to hurt you ever again, even if it means I never get to see you again.”

“Ah, but…” Chrom grips Grima’s back tightly. “Doing that would hurt me more than anything.”

That can’t be true. It can’t hurt more than dying. But Grima does not say so.

He’s been weak-willed from the start, after all.

* * *

And so the Exalt, his husband, and his husband’s doppelganger come to all live together in Ylisstol. 

They start calling Grima “Reflet” in public, because Robin is already there, and yelling “Grima” into a crowd causes only slightly less chaos than yelling “fire.” 

Reflet. Reflection. Grima came up with it on his own.

“You… don’t think you’re just a reflection, do you?” Chrom asks when he hears Grima’s choice. “Of…”

Either Grima’s future self, or the Robin in this world. That is what Chrom means to ask, but Grima shakes his head.

“Of the world,” he says. 

Long ago, humanity’s cruelty made him want to be crueler than them, and he made his choice. But unlike his future self, who saw only cruelty yet again, Grima found kindness this time around, so how could he not wish to choose another path? He is a reflection of all that he has seen. Part of him fears what else he could find.

“Hmm…” Robin gets it. “Then I guess I am, too… I won’t steal your name, though.”

Hearing his husband speak, Chrom’s expression turns unbearably fond.

“Both of your names are great,” he says with a silly grin.

Grima averts his eyes downward, trying not to get in the way of a love that doesn’t belong to him.

His lover is dead, and he has no right to look towards another’s.

He is still haunted at night by his diverging sets of memories. The things he suffered in the ancient past were gruesome, but nothing is more agonizing than having Chrom die in front of him. Twice. He was powerless both times. 

In truth, it’s not that surprising that his future self lost it after that. With Chrom dead and the rest of the Shepherds thinking him a murderer, it was like replaying his history of not being trusted. He could hardly hold onto an innocence no one believed of him.

And yet, while Grima understands the exact motives of his future self, the way things played out brings him to tears. His friends never hated him! They would have been safer if they did! But they loved him, and he loved them, and if he wasn’t too much of a monster to see it then IT WOULDN’T HAVE ENDED LIKE THIS!

Why was his future self’s hatred strong enough to overpower him?

Why wasn’t his love strong enough to win?

He revisits these scenes over and over in his dreams, but he can never find the answer.

Every morning he wakes with tears in his eyes, tears he brushes away so that he can get up and behave like a person who isn’t ungrateful for everything the Chrom of this world is doing for him.

At least, that is his usual routine until one night, he wakes in a still-dark room with the Exalt of Ylisse hovering over him.

“Ch-Chrom?” he asks. His eyes are still as wet as he’s used to. “What’s wrong?”

The candle between them highlights the pain in Chrom’s features. That is the last thing Grima wants to wake up to.

“You were calling my name…” Chrom says weakly. He sets the candle back on the bedside table, but his expression is still obviously one of distress.

“I’m… sorry,” Grima says. By “calling,” Chrom meant “screaming,” most likely. “I didn’t think it would be a problem. The soundproofing in these rooms is usually enough…”

“I happened to be nearby. I was… It doesn’t matter.” Chrom shakes his head. “I would say I’m sorry for barging in here, but… I’m not actually sorry. You sounded so…”

“Miserable?” Grima guesses. “I can’t help it, Chrom. No amount of pillows or blankets can send me off to sleep peacefully. I assume you still dream of the wars, right? Well, so do I, but I had three instead of two.”

“Even so… I do not dream of the wars alone,” Chrom says. 

Hesitantly, like he’s afraid Grima will tell him to leave, he sits on the edge of Grima’s bed. 

“Look, it’s fine. I’m okay now,” Grima says, sitting up and leaning closer to Chrom. “It’s not your problem. You don’t have to concern yourself so much…”

“But you’re still crying!” Chrom exclaims. He cups Grima’s face with his hands, rubbing his thumbs over the newest tear tracks. “And it is very much my problem! Because I—”

The pause hangs between them for an eternity, and the next thing Grima knows, Chrom is kissing him. Grima doesn’t dare to even think, let alone question what is happening. Chrom’s lips are familiar and comforting, and all the more so because Grima never expected to feel them again.

But it is all too short, and within seconds, Chrom has let him go.

“Dear gods, I think that confession may have been worse than the last one,” Chrom mutters. “Reflet… Grima… I… I know that didn’t explain anything, but I… I can’t bear to see you suffer. I would spend my life giving back the happiness that was stolen from you, if you would let me. If you would even want…”

“Chrom…” Grima tries to chuckle, but he fears it comes out more as a sob. “You are already married… What would Robin say if he found us like this?”

“Who do you think told me to stop worrying so much and do something?” Chrom asks. “I… I will leave you alone if that is what you truly desire, but… Robin is the one who said that you might…”

“Want you?” Grima says. “Need you? You have no idea…”

He throws his arms around Chrom’s shoulders, clinging to his shirt like it’s his only lifeline out at sea.

“I was supposed to die!” he says. “Or sleep for a thousand years, at least! Getting my body back was never an option… Seeing you again was never an option… But Lucina takes so much after you, and she wouldn’t leave me alone. I never had a plan for this… I don’t know what to do…”

“You don’t need to have a plan,” Chrom says. “If you don’t know what to do, then let me help you. Promise me you won’t hide away. Even if I can’t stop your tears, at least let me dry them.”

“Ha…” Grima tilts his head up just enough to show that he is smiling. “You might be the only one who actually could stop them.”

Of course, even as he says so, his eyes grow damp with emotion again.

“Will you try, anyway?” he asks, parting his lips.

Chrom kisses him. 

No kiss could ever last long enough. But at least this one _almost_ does.

* * *

Strange rumors come out of Ylisstol regarding the exalt, his husband, and his consort who appears exactly identical to his husband. Is it a case of long-lost twins? A magic spell gone wrong? Another traveling family like the merchants all called Anna?

No one ever learns the truth.

“Are you really okay with this?” Grima asks Robin. “You’ve earned your happiness, and I…”

“You’d better stop,” Robin says. “What sins have you committed that I haven’t? If you can’t find happiness here, then why do I get to?”

“Well…” Grima grimaces. “At the very least, your feelings were strong enough to break free of your future self’s grip. Mine weren’t. So between the two of us, it’s hard to say your love isn’t better…”

“My…?” Robin frowns. “Reflet… Not to bring up bad memories, but just what exactly were you thinking about when your future self first trapped you?”

“That… He lied to me,” Grima says. “He said he would spare the Shepherds if I joined him. And then he refused, and… I could hear everyone calling out to me. I thought about how much I loved them, how I would have died for them, how I really tried…”

“Hmm…” Robin shrugs. “I thought about my love for the Shepherds, too… But then I thought about how I wanted to KILL for them. I wanted that bastard dead and far away from my friends, and with that thought… He couldn’t keep hold of me anymore.”

“Killing intent?” Grima says incredulously.

“Killing intent.” Robin nods. “I don’t have very many memories of our past. I wasn’t merged long enough to recover much, but.. killing does seem to have always been a strength of ours.”

“Yes…” 

“Dying, not so much,” Robin continues.

“Clearly,” Grima agrees, one man who isn’t supposed to be alive right now to another.

Robin shrugs.

“Well, anyway, let’s not talk about who loves who more,” he says with a smile. “Let’s just make sure they know it.”


End file.
